Monday – 9/5/11

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Black Widow of eating contests has scarfed down 183 chicken wings in 12 minutes to break her own world record set last year in Buffalo, N.Y.

Sonya Thomas took home first place Sunday at the tenth annual National Buffalo Wings Festival. She beat eating marvel Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, who came in second with 174 wings.

The two won titles at the July Fourth hot dog eating contest on Coney Island.

The 100-pound Thomas of Alexandria, Va., is the reigning wing-eating champion. She downed 181 wings to win the 2010 contest. Chestnut of San Jose, Calif., settled for second with 169 wings.

The winner gets $1,500. The runner-up wins $750, and third place gets $300.

Thomas is called the Black Widow becomes she often beats male competitors in eating contests.

Giant crocodile captured alive in Philippines

Mayor Cox Elorde of Bunawan township pretends to measure the crocodile which was captured by residents and crocodile farm staff along a creek in Bunawan late Saturday in southern Philippines.

MANILA, Philippines — Villagers and veteran hunters have captured a one-ton saltwater crocodile which they plan to make the star of a planned ecotourism park in a southern Philippine town, an official said Monday.

Mayor Edwin Cox Elorde said dozens of villagers and experts ensnared the 21-foot (6.4-meter) male crocodile along a creek in Bunawan township in Agusan del Sur province after a three-week hunt. It could be one of the largest crocodiles to be captured alive in recent years, he said, quoting local crocodile experts.

Elorde said the crocodile killed a water buffalo in an attack witnessed by villagers last month and was also suspected of having attacked a fisherman who went missing in July.

He said he sought the help of experts at a crocodile farm in western Palawan province.

“We were nervous but it’s our duty to deal with a threat to the villagers,” Elorde told The Associated Press by telephone. “When I finally stood before it, I couldn’t believe my eyes.”

After initial sightings at a creek, the hunters set four traps, which the crocodile destroyed. They then used sturdier traps using steel cables, one of which finally caught the enormous reptile late Saturday, he said.

About 100 people had to pull the crocodile, which weighs about 2,370 pounds, from the creek to a clearing where a crane lifted it into a truck, he said.

The crocodile was placed in a fenced cage in an area where the town plans to build an ecotourism park for species found in a vast marshland in Agusan, an impoverished region about 515 miles southeast of Manila, Elorde said.

“It will be the biggest star of the park,” Elorde said, adding that villagers were happy that they would be able to turn the dangerous crocodile “from a threat into an asset.”

Despite the catch, villagers remain wary because several crocodiles still roam the outskirts of the farming town of about 37,000 people.

They have been told to avoid venturing into marshy areas alone at night, Elorde said.

Man in Plane Sees His Home Being Burglarized

BAY, Ark. (AP) – An Arkansas man who wanted to capture aerial photos of his home during his first plane ride instead helped catch two men burglarizing it.

Steven Lynn said he could see the two taking items from his house.

“I looked down, and sure enough, there was a truck hooked onto a trailer, and guys were loading stuff up,” Lynn told The Jonesboro Sun. “It didn’t seem to faze them that we were buzzing over in an airplane; we got down pretty low.”

Lynn called an uncle who lives nearby. He also called 911.

Craighead County Sheriff’s deputy Phillip Wheaton said the two men unloaded the trailer and left the scene when the uncle arrived. But the pilot and Lynn’s uncle followed them until they were stopped near Bay by Wheaton and two other officers.

“They were giving us turn by turn directions and giving us a description by county road,” Wheaton told television station KAIT.

The two men in the truck, Roosevelt Smith III and Joseph Peel, both of Jonesboro, now face burglary and theft charges.